I very like the idea presented in the letter by Charles Escott-New. I followed a similar approach for making non-operational photo scenes, which I call temporary dioramas. So, all scenes in this Flickr album were set up on the same baseboard, just with different structures and background pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpachl/sets/72157631096303698/

I have not yet thought about using this principle for an operational layout, but it might be really worth a try.